Isaiah 13:21

But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.

ASV

But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.

YLT

And Ziim have lain down there, And full have been their houses of howlings, And dwelt there have daughters of an ostrich, And goats do skip there.

DBT

But beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of owls; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.

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Commentary voices

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Voices4

On this verse

(Verse 21, 22.) The seed of the wicked, prepare your sons for the slaughter of the sins of their fathers: they will not rise nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the cities of the world. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name and remnants of Babylon, and its seed, and its offspring, says the Lord of hosts.

Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic

Related commentary

(Verses 20-22.) Neither the Arabs will pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest there; instead, there will be beasts, their houses will be filled with dragons, and ostriches will dwell there, and hairy creatures will leap about. And owls will answer in her buildings, and sirens in the temples of pleasure. Babylon will be so devastated and deserted that it won't even be useful for pastures of cattle and flocks.

Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic

But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there,.... What sort of creatures are meant is not certain. The Targum renders it by a word which signifies monstrous, astonishing creatures; the Latin interpreter of it calls them apes. Jarchi and Kimchi say such are intended as are called martens or sables, a creature of the weasel kind. The Hebrew word does not much differ from the Arabic one used for "wild cats": and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; whose voices are very mournful and unpleasant.

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there - Hebrew, (ציים tsı̂yı̂ym). This word denotes properly those animals that dwell in dry and desolate places, from צי tsı̂y a waste, a desert. The ancient versions have differed considerably in the interpretation. The Septuagint in different places renders it, Θηριά Thēria - Wild animals; or δαιμόνια daimonia - Demons. The Syriac, Wild animals, spirits, sirens. Vulgate, Beasts, demons, dragons. Abarbanel renders it, Apes. This word is applied to people, in Psa 72:9; Psa 74:14; to animals, Isa 23:13; Isa 34:14; Jer 50:

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

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Cross-references

10 linked verses

The verses this one reaches10

Isaiah 14:23
“I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
Revelation 18:2
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Isaiah 34:11–15
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Isaiah 34:14
The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.
Micah 1:8
Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.
Leviticus 11:16
the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
Malachi 1:3
but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
Job 30:29
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
Acts 28:4
When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

Isaiah's Vision of the Destruction of Babylon — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866) — public domain

Isaiah — The gospel prophet — a Judean court-prophet across Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (c. 740–700 BC) who sees past Assyria to Babylon and past Babylon to the Messiah. Sixty-six chapters divided into the Book of Judgment (1–39) and the Book of Comfort (40–66), climaxing in the Servant wounded for our transgressions.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Isaiah ben Amoz — Heb. Yəša'yāhû, 'Yahweh saves' (1:1); Jewish tradition (b. Megillah 10b; b. Yevamot 49b) holds he was of royal blood and was martyred 'sawn asunder' under Manasseh — a tradition, not Scripture
Date: Ministry c. 740–700 BC — call 'in the year that king Uzziah died' (6:1) through Sennacherib's 701 BC siege of Jerusalem (36–37); spanning the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Revelation 18:2
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable…
leads to
- Jeremiah 51:8
  Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.
- Revelation 14:8
  Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”
- Jeremiah 51:37
  Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 50:39–40
  So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
- Jeremiah 51:60–64
  Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words that had been written concerning Babylon.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

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